Narkose

In Narkose, players step into the operating theater as anesthesiologists aiming to draft the perfect anesthesia protocol. To successfully stabilize the patient, you must tactically deploy and combine various classes of medical drugs—such as Opioids, Hypnotics, and Muscle Relaxants—into a structured layout in front of you. The gameplay relies on hand management and precise spatial grid building. Each turn, you draw new medications from the pharmacy or a colleague's medical waste, play cards orthogonally to expand your grid, and discard down to your hand limit. Slipping a card underneath an existing one of matching value unlocks a powerful "double-play" synergy for that drug class, accelerating your protocol. However, managing your cards wisely is key; burning through your good cards too early will cause you to lose control of the narkose. The game ends immediately when the central pharmacy supply runs dry. During the final medical review ("Die Visite"), players check which of their treatment lines were successful. A valid line is an unbroken, connected path of cards with ascending numerical dose values, where the starting and ending cards belong to the target drug class. Points are awarded based on route length, "monotherapy" alignment, and precise dose controls. Crucially, you can only score a drug class if you hold the highest cumulative value in your tucked card reserves, but exceeding a total dose of 12 triggers a catastrophic overdose, completely invalidating that category. The game also features a fully dynamic Solitaire mode. In the solo variant, you face off against the strict Chief of Medicine, Prof. Q, who intercepts your discarded medications and builds his own opposing protocol. You must out-maneuver his authority and secure your clinical validation before the deck empties. —description from the designer